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Subscribe to Mom & … Podcast Wherever You Listen to Podcasts April 29, 2022 / Episode 68 – Get Strategic About Your Career Pause with Guest: Emily Stark, Marketable Mama Show Summary This week’s episode is all about helping moms get jobs. Emily Stark’s clients are women coming off of a career pause, or looking to make a career change. She helps moms crystalize what they have to offer – and what they want out of – their professional lives, even if they have a significant career gap. In true Mom &… Podcast form, we also go on a few tangents about topics like pandemic dogs, and what will they do when we all go back to work? More About Emily Stark Emily Stark, mom and… women’s advocate, yoga-enthusiast, and creator of Marketable Mama. Marketable Mama supports working and return-to-work moms as they navigate their career journey. She helps women capitalize on the uniqueness of their passions, skills, and families to land fulfilling work. Emily coaches with great emphasis on work life integration, leveraging in-depth trainings as a Certified Life Coach and Certified Fair Play Facilitator. Emily is certified in Professional Resume Writing and has a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. She has given career workshops at universities, professional development trainings, and on various working parent platforms. Emily prioritizes elevating all women and extends this through donations and volunteer work with women in transition throughout San Diego county. When she takes her Marketable Mama hat off, Emily can be found snuggling with her family on the sunny beaches of Southern California or sneaking away to practice yoga. Topics From This Episode Career pauses & Career gapsValuesStrengthsWomen helping womenCareer coachingResume writingMentorshipCovid impact on the workplaceInterview questionsInterview preparationLinkedInFair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space, both by Eve RodskyThe Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron Connect with Emily Stark WebsiteInstagramLinkedIn Look, Listen, Learn Susanne Get your lab work done before you doctor’s appointment (but don’t try to interpret the results yourself!)Your College-Bound Kid podcast and The High School Hamster Wheel Podcast Emily Buy beautiful art books when you can’t get to the museum (try a used book store for some good finds)How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm by Mei-Ling HopgoodListening to podcasts outside of the usual list Missy A Slight Change of Plans Podcast with Dr. Maya ShakarLaw & Order new episodesLearning everything about having a teen driver in the house Connect With the Mom &… Podcast Please subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts! 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Please let us know if you have any questions about a sentence that needs a little extra interpretation. [00:00:00] Missy: Welcome to the mom and dot podcast. I’m Missy Stevens mom and dot.dot writer, foster care advocate. And today continuing education. Catch her upper I’m a little behind. [00:00:11] Susanne: and I’m Susanne Kerns mom. And that, that dot writer, LGBTQ and sex ed advocate. And today officially not in menopause. I made it halfway. Is that, is that TMI? I don’t know, but we’ve had a lot of menopause theme guest on and said, I thought you all should have the latest status. It’s clock is officially back at zero. So [00:00:35] Missy: Yeah. [00:00:35] Susanne: I know. [00:00:36] Missy: well, today we are welcoming Emily Stark. We’re so excited. You’re here. She is a mom and dot.dot women’s advocate, yoga enthusiast, and the creator of marketable mama. Her venture marketable mama supports working and return to work moms. As they navigate their career journey. She helps women capitalize on the uniqueness of their passion skills and families to land fulfilling work and Lily coaches with great emphasis on work-life integrate. Leveraging in depth trainings as a certified life coach and certified fair play facilitator, Emily is certified and professional resume writing and has a master’s in curriculum and instruction. When she takes her marketable mama hat off, Emily can be found snuggling with her family on the sunny beaches of Southern California or sneaking away to practice yoga. That sounds fabulous. [00:01:23] Susanne: know, and the beach. Oh, welcome. [00:01:26] Missy: good. [00:01:27] Emily: Thank you guys. I’m really happy to be here. That was a great introduction. [00:01:31] Susanne: Oh [00:01:32] Missy: feels good to have your bio read. Doesn’t it. [00:01:34] Susanne: I [00:01:34] Emily: It does. [00:01:35] Susanne: we should, we should give ourselves some credit. Well, now, speaking of that bio, so that tells us a little bit of information about you and the career journeys that you help your clients on. But can you tell us a little bit about your own career journey and what led you to start marketable mamma? [00:01:52] Emily: So, , I went into teaching and was very adamant about wanting to be a teacher. And, but then, I realized that I just wanted to talk to the students and listen to them and like, know what they were planning on doing. I was in higher ed, so what their next step looked like. And so I found myself too often, not even looking at my curriculum for the day and just sitting and talking to the students. And so I eventually got into career coaching and then just being a mom, it organically just unfolded. When my friends learned that I was into career coaching, then they would ask me, what do you think I should do about this? What should I do about this? And, um, then it just became a side project, a passion project. And then when the pandemic hit I was working on an outplacement firm at the time and their work, as you can imagine, really, it was a huge uptick. And then, the side passion project with was really growing too. So I had to make a decision and, you know, my kids are having to, I have a 10 year old and a four year old, there was a, it’s a high demand time, you know, and also like a really cool time for me as an educator and my past, I was really excited to be a part of that with them and not, you know, drop them off. Wave goodbye, but creates an activities and some learning experiences too. So all that was happening. I just had to let go of the outplacement from, and just really wanting to devote my time to my family and, and grow in marketable mama a little bit more. So that’s how I’ve gotten here. And the last couple of years have, have been really exciting. I feel like I’m finally, you guys may feel this way too, that after a couple of years you get to a stride and for the first little bit you’re, it’s just, what to do, you know, or what this is going to look like. but I felt like I’m getting to that place now and it feels really good. [00:03:56] Susanne: Well, yeah, running a business is a whole different skillset than, you [00:04:01] Missy: we learned a new things just today. [00:04:04] Susanne: Yes, we do. We learned that we don’t have to file our taxes since our LLC didn’t start until 2022, that took a while to figure that out. I know. [00:04:14] Emily: One last thing on the [00:04:15] Susanne: I know I’m going to take a nap this afternoon instead. I think. [00:04:19] Missy: I know. I was like, I think I might finish my book. I mean, not the one I’m writing the one I’m reading heaven forbid. Um, so I imagine as this thing, do you say that you are a good listener and that your mom friends used to come and talk to you and say, what do I do? So between that and your work with marketable mama, you get to hear from a lot of different women who are trying to figure out what’s next. And are there any common threads from your clients or from your friends with these career life struggles and obstacles? [00:04:48] Emily: Yeah. And it’s with me too. I think I can really empathize with a lot of the women that I speak with and talk to, I had my son totally unplanned. Um, it wasn’t, so I was definitely not ready. And I think when that happens, it throws everything off in your life, a general. And so, the empathy piece is there, but some threads that I, see a lot with clients, So I’ve found three profiles of women that I work with. They’re not all the same, but I’ve seen some trends there. So one is, uh, women in career pause. So they have Two months, 12 years, and everywhere in between they have focused on their family and now they’re wanting to, you know, broaden their, or dip back into their professional, sphere of themselves. and then the other is working moms that just need a change. And, that population has really grown in the past year, so that is another Group that I work with. And then the other is Explorer. So working moms or, part-time, or they’re just feeling like there may be, some room in their life to add on something else or, um, kind of going back to the player play and life certification. This group is really, working that angle of my skill set. So, with the career pause, mom’s some threads that I see with that is, just that, what have I missed? What have I been missing? That kind of idea. Um, so one study that I saw on this was, by the tech Pixies. So this is a group that, as a tech platform for, people that are returning to where they have lots of different things too, but they found that the career confidence is The number one hurdle that working people are struggling with. And so a lot of my work is unlearning that like, let’s think about what skills that you do have, and really I’d like to, bring some questions and, clear evidence of transferable skills and their value, in the workplace because, I think a lot of people in general, if they’re transferring to a different career sector or, connecting the dots and that is just something that, um, I get my little detective hat on with, [00:07:16] Susanne: And is there any way to even like, avoid having that confidence, even dip, like if someone knows that they’re going to be taking a break, or is it just a natural part of, you know, going into it, a lifestyle that, you know, you’re not familiar with? [00:07:31] Emily: Yeah. I think one thing that can be done to avoid that dip in confidence is keeping some focus on your industry. So listening to podcasts that are industry specific, keeping in touch with your, Colleagues, and then also getting on LinkedIn every once in a while. Um, and it’s, those things are not very time consuming. I don’t feel like they would really pull you away, but, also maybe having some projects that you are working on. So maybe if you were, a graphic designer or something like that, like, making your children’s, party invitations or something like that, and engaging, your interests and professionally, but, kind of twisting it a little bit. So I think little things like that can help. [00:08:16] Susanne: I like that. [00:08:16] Missy: Yeah. I think a lot about the moms who, who either they plan to be a way and they plan to go back in their industry. And at some point realized that’s not going to be the right thing for me. Or perhaps they left the workforce during the pandemic. And like a lot of people over the last two years have thought, I need to do something different, whether it’s because their eyes were opened during the pandemic. Or I think a lot of people realize time is short. So if they’re in that situation and maybe they have kept up a lot of these skills for their old industry, but they want to move on, like how do you help them start figuring out what’s next and what they have that can go forward and where they need to fill in some gaps. [00:08:54] Emily: Yeah. I, I like to do, um, a lot of work around, values and, I like to talk about their must haves and that is definitely something that’s in my, first session. What do you want? What do you not want? And then also thinking about their strengths a lot of times, when you take a career pause or just when you take some time reflecting, you still do things that circle around your strengths and you may not even notice it. So for example, if I was just chatting with this mom not too long ago at my son’s school, that over the pandemic, she’d lost her job, but she stepped into a role with her, daughter’s girl scout troop, and had taken on a very similar role in what she was doing in her last job. And I find that very, very common, but You know your skills, you know, you can do this. And so you just find different places, right. To do this. And then even at home, like if you, in your past, if you were into operations or logistics, you are likely doing something like that in your home too. And so, I think the biggest thing is sitting back and noticing that because I find that more often than not the women that I work with, that it’s like a light bulb than, oh, I didn’t, I didn’t even realize I was doing that or flexing those strengths or, adding value to these groups that I’m a part of and this way. and then, and also I feel like there’s a lot of links between our strengths and then what’s fulfilling to us. And then also that value system that I was referring to, like they sometimes circle around and swim around the city. Structure within our container, you [00:10:42] Susanne: And values are one of our favorite things to talk about. And so everybody who brings it up, we like to ask, do you have a favorite values, exercise, or approach that you like to use with your clients to dive [00:10:55] Emily: Um, Hmm. I think that, because a lot of my work is career focused. I do ask a lot of questions about what are some, what are some trends that you are seeing in your life, maybe that data back to your first job that have been a thread. And what does that say about you and your value system? So for example, if you maybe started you know, your first job when you were 16 or something babysitting or, helping you. Grandparents with, their small business. What does that say about you and what has stuck with you throughout your, career story or your journey and how does that play into what’s most important to you and what do you want to take of that into your future and your next steps? So, um, a lot of my work is very investigative, you know, like helping and guiding the client to figure out things about themselves that they normally don’t think about were just so buried at, you know, as, as moms, especially, and all of our responsibilities. and so I think that is the biggest feedback or consistent feedback that I get is. I didn’t know this about myself, you know, or I didn’t notice this about myself. And so I think a lot of it comes at the values and, forward vision comes from just pausing and noticing and, just realizing things about yourself that you don’t see everyday. [00:12:26] Susanne: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, [00:12:28] Missy: So another great case for a coach [00:12:31] Susanne: I know, cause you, it’s hard to do that to yourself. [00:12:34] Missy: yeah. And you need somebody to pull it out. Because if I sit down with a piece of paper, I can’t point out certain things. And so as soon as you hear certain things from your friends or family, and you’re like, oh, I probably am good at that, but it’s really hard still t…
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